Journey to the Center of the Earth

This is the best movie!! I give it 10/10. Even though most of the story wasn't from the book, it's the best movie I've seen in years. The whole cast did perfect on acting. The music was so moving. I plan to buy anything I can on this movie. (Posters, etc). Anyone who hasn't seen this, buy it or rent it now! Jeremy London did excellent as the unexperienced nephew on the expedition. So did Treat Williams and the Professor. Go rent this once-in-a-lifetime movie NOW!!

I went into this movie expecting crap, because it was made for TV, but I was pleasantly surprised. The acting was very good, with each actor seeming very comfortable in their characters. Treat Williams and Jeremy London worked very well as a uncle/nephew team, and Hugh Keays-Byrne delivered some serious laughs as Scottish gun smuggler-turned-guide McNiff. Bryan Brown portrays the film's antagonist with equal arrogance and intensity; very entertaining.

The problem is most people were expecting a good quality movie. The reality is, this was made for TV, and if you lower your expectations completely, it's actually a good movie.

The science is flawed, but so was Verne's, so no harm no foul. The special effects are bad, but like I said, it's made for TV. The scenery and locations are engaging and very cool. The caves are somewhat cheesy at times, but that's easily unnoticed if you pay attention to the characters. The action is visibly fake at times, especially the gunfire and fistfights, but not in a bad way.

All in all, the film contains very likable characters, genuine humor, and a very good soundtrack (another thing most reviews fail to mention). Just watch it in good humor and enjoy the story.

Plot

Remake of Jules Verne's classic story finds adventurers seeking a mysterious hidden land. They are joined by the wife of another man, who had previously gone on a similar expedition and disappeared.

Cast

Treat Williams and Jeremy London are a talented pair and make for some good casting. Bryan Brown, less so. Petra Yared however was a wonderful surprise.

Verdict

How many versions of this have there been? Ever since the original back in 1959 we seem to have had a fair few, varying budgets, varying quality. So where does this Hallmark version sit on the scale? Not great, not great at all.

Now to be clear I like Williams I think he's a great b-movie leading man and both the London twins have been in plenty of great films so I consider myself a fan. So here, they had the cast to pull this off.

What didn't they have? Well to start off I'd say the budget, they didn't have the budget. Some partys looked worse than the worst Scyfy original as far as CGI is concerned and some of the practical effects were Jason & the Argonauts level.

What else? Decent writing, a consistent supporting cast and something, anything to make it stand out from the those before it (In a good way).

Without all this we have an often ugly, poorly acted, unoriginal, tacky movie that for it's 3hr runtime is exhausting.

If you binge watch multiple adaptations expect this to be a low point.

Rants

I mean seriously that scene with the large creature that won't be elaborated on as this is a no spoiler review! The CGI there was, I mean truly next level and by next level I mean last level, I mean oldest level, I mean give a computer to a cave of neanderthal men and I'm confident they'd do better! Yikes, that was just embarassing.

The Good

Two leads are great as was Yared

The Bad

Brown is just obnoxious and unlikable in everything he's in.

Hugely ugly in places Some very weak writing Some even weaker acting with some of the supporting cast.

Of course many will argue that the original is always the best, and I'm not denying that it isn't. I just think this version on the Jules Verne classic was not that far behind the original.

However, the special effects could stand to be a bit better, I might just think that compared to "Jurassic Park", but I guess they had to stick to the TV film budget.

Most of the characters in the film were portrayed excellently. Treat Williams playing Theodore Lytton, brought across his character's feelings for Alice beautifully, whether concealing it or not. Jonas Lytton, Theodore's nephew was played by Jeremy London. Jonas was definitely my favourite character, he represented the heart and the youth in this film. His infatuation with Ralna(Petra Jared)was at times adorable. Petra Jared and Jeremy London had an incredible chemistry, some scenes were hilarious and some were romantic.

The plot in the film is followed mostly to the book. The film is not up there with the original, but what film is eg. The remake of "Psycho" was nowhere near as good as the original. However, this TV remake proves to be almost as good.

This one is an unimpressive adaptation of one of the most important novels of Jules Verne known as the writer who creates science fiction as a literary genre (in fact, Journey to the Center of the Earth is credited by Arthur C. Clarke as the best novel of Verne). This version have some good special effects but lacks impact and originality. If you want to see a better view of the same novel, see the version with James Mason instead. I give this a 4 (four).